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Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language.[1][2][3][4][5] Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context. The earliest known activities in descriptive linguistics have been attributed toPāṇini around 500 BCE, with his analysis of Sanskrit in Ashtadhyayi.[6] One subfield of linguistics is the study of language structure, or grammar. This focuses on the system of rules followed by the users of a language. It includes the study of morphology (the formation and composition of words), syntax (the formation and composition of phrases and sentences from these words), and phonology (sound systems). Phonetics is a related branch of linguistics concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds and nonspeech sounds, and how they are produced and perceived. The study of language meaning is concerned with how languages employ logical structures and real-world references to convey, process, and assign meaning, as well as to manage and resolve ambiguity. This category includes the study of semantics (how meaning is inferred from words and concepts) and pragmatics (how meaning is inferred from context). Linguistics also looks at the broader context in which language is influenced by social, cultural, historical and political factors. This includes the study of evolutionary linguistics, which investigates into questions related to the origins and growth of languages; historical linguistics, which explores language change; sociolinguistics, which looks at the relation between linguistic variation and social structures;psycholinguistics, which explores the representation and function of language in the mind; neurolinguistics, which looks at language processing in the brain; language acquisition, on how children or adults acquire language; and discourse analysis, which involves the structure of texts and conversations. Although linguistics is the scientific study of language, a...

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...LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
OVERVIEW
• The origin of Language
• Features of Language
• Knowledge of Language
• Linguistics
• Branches of Linguistics
• Approaches to Linguistic Studies
• Schools of Linguistics
THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE
• The divine source
• The natural sound source o Primitive words
o Cuckoo, splash, rattle, hiss, buzz
o “Bow-wow theory of language origin.”
• The social interaction source
• The physical adaptation source
• The tool-making source
• The genetic source
o Child development è Automatic
o Deaf children è Fluent users of sign language è innateness hypothesis
o We are born with a capacity for speaking/using language
• (See Yule, Ch.1; Fromkin et al., Ch.6)
MAJOR FEATURES OF HUMAN LANGUAGE
1- Communicative : function of language is to communicate
2- Vocal : human vocal organs are used
3- Human : sophisticated use of language is unique to human species
4- Social : it ıs used by the members of a community
5- Natural : ıt is a natural phenomena
6- Changeable : it can and will change trough time
7- Rule-governed : there are systematic rules in it.
8- Product of mind : it is the product of mental operation
9- Arbitrary : no systematic relationship between form and meaning
10- Creative : language is used creatively
MINOR FEATURES OF LANGUAGE
1- Language , unless...

...CONTEXT
Context is a notion used in the language sciences (linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, pragmatics, semiotics, etc.) in two different ways, namely as
* verbal context
* social context
Contents[hide] * 1 Verbal context * 2 Social context * 3 Multidisciplinary theory * 4 Influence * 5 References |
[edit] Verbal context
Verbal context refers to surrounding text or talk of an expression (word, sentence, conversational turn, speech act, etc.). The idea is that verbal context influences the way we understand the expression. Hence the norm not to cite people out of context. Since much contemporary linguistics takes texts, discourses or conversations as its object of analysis, the modern study of verbal context takes place in terms of the analysis of discourse structures and their mutual relationships, for instance the coherence relation between sentences.
[edit] Social context
Traditionally, in sociolinguistics, social contexts were defined in terms of objective social variables, such as those of class, gender or race. More recently, social contexts tend to be defined in terms of the social identity being construed and displayed in text and talk by language users.
REGISTER
In linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words...

...
Systemic functional linguistics is the study of the relationship between language and its functions in social setting. In systemic functional linguistics, three strata make up the linguistic system: meaning (semantics), sound (phonology) and wording or lexicogrammar (syntax, morphology and lexis). Systemic functional linguistics treats grammar as a meaning-making resource and insists on the interrelation of form and meaning.
According to Halliday, language has developed in response to three kinds of social functional ‘needs’. The first is to be able to construe experience in terms of what is going on around us and inside of us. The second is to interact with the social world by negotiating social roles and attitudes. The third and final need is to be able to create messages with which we can package our meanings in term of what is New or Given, and in terms of what the starting for our message is, commonly referred to as the Themes. Halliday calls the language functions Metafunctions, and refers to them as Ideational, Interpersonal and Textual respectively. Halliday’s point is that any piece of language calls into play all three metafunctions simultaneously. According to SFG, functional bases of grammatical phenomena are divided into three broad areas, called metefunctions: the ideational,the interpersonal and the textual. Written and spoken texts can be examined with respect to each of these metafunctions...

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Linguistics
Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics
1.1 Why study language?
1. Language is very essential to human beings.
2. In language there are many things we should know.
3. For further understanding, we need to study language scientifically.
1.2 What is language?
Language is a means of verbal communication. It is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
1.3 Design features of language
The features that define our human languages can be called design features which can distinguish human language from any animal system of communication.
1.3.1 Arbitrariness
Arbitrariness refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meanings.
1.3.2 Duality
Duality refers to the property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization.
1.3.3 Creativity
Creativity means that language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. Recursiveness refers to the rule which can be applied repeatedly without any definite limit. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis for the possibility of creating endless sentences.
1.3.4 Displacement
Displacement means that human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts...

... Some Preliminaries about Language
IV. Define the following terms:
1. Linguistics: Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.
2. Phonology: The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology.
3. Syntax: The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences is called syntax. .
4 Design features: it referred to the defining properties of human language that tell the difference between human language that tell the difference between human language and any system of animal communication.
5. Psycholinguistics: The study of language with reference to the workings of mind is called psycholinguistics.
6. Language: Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
7. Phonetics: The study of sounds which are used in linguistic communication is called phonetics.
8. Morphology: The study of the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words is called morphology.
9. Parole: it referred to the actual phenomena or data of linguistics.
V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary:
1. Language is generally defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Explain it in detail.
First of all, language is a system, because Elements of language are com&shy; bined according to rules. Secondly, language is arbitrary...

...AND LITERATURE (PHD PROGRAM)
LINGUISTICS
DR VEYSEL KILIÇ
ESMA ŞENEL
Y1112.620021
HISTORY OF LINGUISTICSLinguistics as a study endeavors to describe and explain the human faculty of language. The history of linguistics is a branch of intellectual history, for it deals with history of ideas- ideas about language- and not directly with language itself (Law, 2003, p.2). Many histories of linguistics have been written over the last two hundred years, and since 1970s linguistic historiography has become a specialized subfield. Early developments in linguistics were considered part of philosophy, rhetoric, logic, psychology, biology, pedagogy, poetics, and religion, making it difficult to separate the history of linguistics from intellectual history in general, and, as a consequence, work in the history of linguistics has contributed also to the general history of ideas.
In ancient civilization, linguistic study was originally motivated by the correct description of classical liturgical language, notably that of Sanskrit grammar by Panini. Panini is known for his Sanskrit grammar, particularly for his formulation of the 3,959 rules (of Sanskrit morphology, syntax and semantics in the grammar known as Ashtadhyayi which is one of the earliest known grammars. Asstadhyayi is...

...relation to other branches of linguistics. Then, define yours. One of your reference should be “fundamentals of Pyscholinguistics by Fernandez and Cairns (2010)”
Ø Psycholinguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study in which the goals are to understand how people acquire language, how people use language to speak and understand one another, and how language is represented and processed in the brain. Psycholinguistics is primarily a sub-discipline of psychology and linguistics, but it is also related to developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, neurolinguistics, and speech science (Fernandez: 2011).
Ø Psycholinguistics examines the psychology of language; psycholinguistics is the name given to the study of the psychological processes involved in language. Psycholinguists study understanding, producing, and remembering language, and hence are concerned with listening, reading, speaking, writing, and memory for language. (Harley, Trevor A. 2001. The Psychology of Language.)
Ø "Psycholinguistic studies have revealed that many of the concepts employed in the analysis of sound structure, word structure, and sentence structure also play a role in language processing. However, an account of language processing also requires that we understand how these linguistic concepts interact with other aspects of human processing to enable language production and comprehension."( William O'Grady,...

...Outline
1. Cognitive Linguistics: some basic facts
2. Branches of Cognitive Linguistics
1. Cognitive Linguistics: some basic facts
What is cognitive linguistics?
Cognitive linguistics is a branch of linguistics that focuses on the conceptual structures and cognitive processes that underlie linguistic representation and grammar in language. [3]
Cognitive linguistics is the study of language in its cognitive function, where “cognitive” refers to the crucial role of intermediate informational structures with our encounters with the world. Cognitive linguistics assumes that our interaction with the world is mediated through informational structures in the mind. It is more specific than cognitive psychology, however, by focusing on natural language as a means for organizing, processing, and conveying that information. [2]
How does cognitive linguistics differ from general linguistics?
Cognitive linguistics argues that language is governed by general cognitive principles, rather than by a special-purpose language module. The three major hypotheses that guide the cognitive linguistics approach to language are:
1. Language is not an autonomous cognitive faculty
2. Grammar is conceptualization
3. Knowledge of language emerges from language use [3]
What is the subject...